Anthropic has introduced new restrictions in its artificial intelligence coding assistant Claude Code that are designed to prevent it from recreating existing video games, a change that has already generated controversy after some developers reported that the instruction is also interfering with their own legitimate projects. As first reported by Game Developer, the instruction was discovered by the user Chasm on the social media platform X, who said it was introduced around October 27 through a server-delivered configuration identified as tengu_heron_brook. The text directs Claude Code not to build a recreation of a specific existing game, even if it is renamed or described as original.
The change does not amount to a blanket prohibition on artificial intelligence assisted game development. Anthropic continues to allow the creation of original games, games that follow an established genre, and games built from a user’s own designs and assets. Addy Osmani of Anthropic subsequently confirmed that two sentences had been added to the Claude Code prompt for Claude Opus 5.5 to discourage intellectual property infringement, which already violates the company’s usage policy. Osmani also acknowledged the potential for unintended consequences, stating that Anthropic would continue refining the restrictions and encouraging developers whose projects were incorrectly rejected to report their experiences.
Complaints have already emerged. In a GitHub issue filed on October 30, a developer operating Conflict Simulations LLC reported that Claude Code had begun refusing to work on personalised digital board wargame modules commissioned by paying customers. According to the developer, the projects use original code and materials supplied by customers, with the finished modules intended exclusively for people who already own the corresponding physical games, although the work is not officially licensed by the publishers. The developer also said the refusals began only after Claude was asked to evaluate whether the new restrictions applied to the existing project. Tom’s Hardware separately reported further complaints involving reverse engineering workflows, although a direct connection to the game-specific instruction has not been conclusively established.
The developments are particularly relevant to the PC modding community, where coding assistants have increasingly been used for reverse engineering, optimisation, and game preservation. A recently covered Oblivion Remastered performance mod built with Claude reportedly improved average frame rates by more than 40 percent while substantially reducing traversal stuttering. The new restrictions do not explicitly prohibit modding or optimising existing games, but the reported refusals raise questions about how reliably the tool can separate unauthorised recreations from other legitimate development activity. Anthropic now faces the challenge of protecting the intellectual property of game creators without unnecessarily restricting the legitimate uses of its increasingly capable coding tools.
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